Design and Development of Wearable Personal Devices

Laurence Zwiebel of Vanderbilt University in the U.S. will produce a wearable self-powered device containing the compound VUAA known to repel the malaria vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae. This will help to protect individuals from being bitten outdoors. He will optimize volatilization of VUAA compounds, and explore strategies to incorporate selected analogs into wearable materials. Available technologies that can harness energy from movement, the sun, or body heat, and long- lasting batteries will also be tested for integration into the wearable device and their ability to control a slow release of the repellent.